Last Modified: Monday, October 14, 2013 at 6:03 p.m.

In this 2008 file photo, Joe Centracco speaks about the murder of his daughter Toni Centracco, who was killed on Aug. 17, 2007. Michael Woods was later arrested and charged in the case.

Doug Engle/Star-Banner

The Ocala Police Department spoke with neighbors who heard gunshots and watched a vehicle leave the area in the early morning hours.

Investigators found possible sneaker prints on an outside wall and inside the home at 1524 NE 10th St., suggesting a recent burglary. Also found inside: 96 one-gallon zipper bags filled with marijuana, a bale of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

A .380-caliber Remington Peter spent shell casing was found in the driveway near Centracco’s body.

Neighbor Alex Pacheco found the young woman’s body face up near the front left bumper of her cream-colored Chevrolet Impala about 7 a.m. and called 911.

“It appears the suspect probably knew the victim, as the front door was left open, but the screen door was left closed, as if someone exited the house and confronted the deceased woman,” Ocala Police Lt. G. Stewart wrote in a report on Aug. 18, 2007, the day after the killing.

According to the Medical Examiner’s Office, Centracco’s body did not show any signs of struggle or trauma.

Officials started piecing together what could have transpired between Centracco and her attacker, but they couldn’t identify the killer. This unusual, unsolved homicide left Marion County residents looking over their shoulders a little more than usual.

It took three years for a break in the case, leading to the arrest of Michael Woods. His first-degree murder trial started Monday with jury selection.

The Star-Banner combed through more than 2,000 pages of discovery documents in the case. Many of the early records related to various tips investigators received for what, at first, was a vexing “whodunnit.”

•••

Centracco’s parents and friends made it their business to keep the 20-year-old Vanguard High School graduate’s face in view.

Joe and Lisa Centracco covered the Ocala area with posters featuring their daughter’s smiling face. There was a reward offered for information. The reward began around $25,000 and increased to $100,000 as time passed.

“This is our life right here,” Joe Centracco said in 2008 as he tended to a large framed photograph in front of a car wash on State Road 40.

“It’s what we owe to our daughter,” he said. “We’d like to have this case solved before the bottoms of these signs rot out. But if we don’t, we’ll put new bottoms on them that will last even longer and new signs.”

False leads poured in from all avenues, including Marion County Jail inmates turning in fellow prisoners, various community members calling in tips that had been repeated like a game of telephone, and even one woman, Stephanie Barbee, who said she was at the house during a burglary and watched one of her friends shoot Centracco.

“... I think it was based on the publicity, the reward, and whatever information they heard,” Assistant State Attorney Robin Arnold said of the tips. She is prosecuting the case with Janine Nixon.

Barbee gave several statements to police. At one point, she said the group tossed the gun out the front passenger window near the 4600 block of U.S. 441 South before arriving at the Mobile gas station in the 5000 block of South Pine Avenue. Police never located that gun.

Barbee identified Ryan Calhoun, 24, as being part of the group involved.

Calhoun might have lied to police about his whereabouts on the night of the shooting, indicating his possible involvement.

But, in the end, “he wanted to make it seem as if he knew something because it was a big event and he wanted to be a part of it,” investigators documented after Calhoun said he was not involved in the murder.

At the time of her death, Centracco lived with boyfriend Marshall Pardee, who himself became a person of interest in her death. The couple had been together for about three or four years, according to Pardee’s father, Dennis.

Authorities issued a “be on the lookout” order for Marshall Pardee, who would likely be driving a green 2002 Chevy pickup. “Vehicle is to be treated as a crime scene if contact with it is made,” police were informed.

Pardee was arrested on a drug charge because of the large stash inside the house. But he maintained his innocence in Centracco’s death and tried to help police catch the real killer.

He was released from jail on the drug charge because officials couldn’t prove the marijuana stash belonged to him.

Many of the couple’s friends were possible suspects in the case from the start. This included Michael Lamar Woods, 31, an acquaintance of Pardee and Centracco’s, whose nickname was “Tank.”

•••

At first, Woods was only briefly considered a person of interest. He told police he didn’t have information to help in the case. He had stayed with his mother, Debra Williams, the night of the death.

Woods told police he stayed there the entire night to escape girlfriend Julia Barnes, who was “bothering him.”

Williams confirmed her son’s story and told police he often stayed with her when trying to avoid Barnes.

Investigators moved on to other false leads and other suspects.

Then, in February 2010, Pardee, 23, and his new girlfriend, Chyavana Hampton, 20, were found dead inside their condo at 1621 NE Second St., Ocala. They had been shot multiple times.

Investigators eventually linked all three homicides.

•••

On Aug. 20, 2010, Ocala Detective Miguel Gauthier and Lt. Mike Balken traveled to Wilmington, N.C., to speak with Julia Barnes, who by then was Woods’ ex-girlfriend.

The men spoke to Barnes surreptitiously at her place of employment with an audio recorder in a shirt pocket.

Barnes said she was with Pardee on the night Centracco died. She said Woods had called her repeatedly — suggesting Woods was using her to keep an eye on Pardee.

She said Woods never returned home the night Centracco died. And he did not attend her funeral because he didn’t have the appropriate attire, which Barnes thought was odd.

Centracco, Pardee, Barnes and Woods had all gone mudding in Pardee’s truck the day before Centracco’s death, Barnes recalled.

She also found it odd that, before Centracco’s death, Woods had trouble paying bills. But after she died, he spent $200 on fishing gear, surprised Barnes with a $350 bracelet on her birthday, and also paid for two hotel stays.

Barnes never heard Woods confess to Centracco’s killing. But James Lancaster says he did.

The state gave Lancaster immunity in exchange for his testimony.

In an interview with former prosecutor Anthony Tatti, Lancaster admitted to driving Woods to the northeast Ocala residence the evening Centracco died. He circled the area in his pickup waiting for Woods, but instead the defendant called his cellphone.

Investigators found tire marks similar to those left by tires on Lancaster’s truck outside the residence.

Prosecutors and police developed a theory in the Centracco killing. They determined that Woods was at the house to steal the drugs and killed Centracco when she surprised him.

In November 2010, Woods was arrested in the Centracco case.

“Murder of who exactly? I know who’s all died. Am I getting charged with all three murders?” Woods asked.

Not at that time. But in June 2011 he was charged in the deaths of Pardee and Hampton.

“I just ask people not to judge the case until they know the evidence,” said defense attorney James T. Reich. He wouldn’t comment further on his trial strategy.

•••

Woods has been held at the Marion County Jail since his arrest in November 2010. In 2012, the defense asked if Woods could attend a private funeral viewing for his sister, Gabrielle Rush, who died as a result of a hit-and-run vehicle crash.

Circuit Judge Brian Lambert, who is presiding over the case, denied the request.

The first of Woods’ cases to go to trial is the Centracco murder. The next scheduled case is an unrelated murder solicitation case. Then comes the murder trial for the deaths of Hampton and Pardee.

In this first trial, the jury will learn that Pardee is dead, but won’t know the state alleges Woods’ involvement. The state is seeking the death penalty in both murder cases.

Death penalty trials start with what’s called the guilt phase. The jury considers the testimony and evidence and renders a verdict.

If the verdict is guilty of first-degree murder, then the penalty phase begins. The jury recommends a sentence: life in prison or death row. Lambert will ultimately decide Woods’ fate.

If the final sentence is execution, Woods would be on death row in the first case, but prosecutors still would have to try the second murder trial, just in case the first verdict is overturned on appeal.

Jury selection is expected to take about three days while the defense seeks to find a jury that also includes minority representation.

According to Arnold, the state will take about three days to lay out its case in the guilt phase.

Among the witnesses expected to testify is the Ocala Police Department’s Miguel Gauthier, lead detective in the case. He is currently suspended with pay after his arrest on a charge of DUI involving property damage.

According to Arnold, Gauthier is still under subpoena and therefore can be called to testify.

The defense will take three or four days to lay out its case, according to defense attorney Reich.

Another member of the defense team, Miami-based Terence Lenamon, has focused on gathering penalty-phase evidence. Lenamon has been involved in many death penalty cases in South Florida and briefly joined the defense team for Casey Anthony.

He also was on the Josh Fulgham defense team that was able to spare Fulgham the death penalty. And he is representing James Bannister, 33, who is accused of murdering four people, including two children.

As the case heads to trial, Reich will likely try to prove the Centraccos’ search for justice in their daughter’s murder did not identify the right person, but rather just another false lead.

Contact April Warren at 867-4065 or april.warren@ocala.com.

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